Talk about GOOD mail . . .

I have read a few blogs who have been touched by Jill's good mail concept and I think it's wonderful. I am not really into sending good mail to anyone on a regular basis, but I try to send cards (hand made of course) for birthdays and baby gifts, etc.

I was recently the recipient of some VERY good mail. Here's the story ('cuz there's always a story). Also, my hubby wanted to blog about this, but it's been like two weeks and he's not done it, so I am taking over (sorry, sweetie - you snooze, you lose - it had to be done).

So, my sister-in-law who lives in Salt Lake City has always had a little quirk about tradgic life events. It's understandable with some of the things that have happened in and around her life, so that's not a big deal. The crash in SLC where a teenage kid plowed into a van and killed a pregnant mother and kids in the car happened not too far from my sister-in-law's house. She actually heard the sirens and knew it had to be big. Well, if you haven't read about this story, you can read about it in the Salt Lake Tribune here (can't get to the original article since it's more than 30 days old). The original article talked about the father asking for forgiveness of the teen who was driving the car that struck his family van which killed the wife/mother and two of the kids. It was quite amazing that the father was so willing to forgive. He asked people to show compassion and do random acts of kindness. This wreck happened right before or after a shooting at Trolley Square where 5 people were killed by a teenager on a shooting rampage. So, my sister-in-law being touched by these tradgic events and feeling the need to do her part in the random acts of kindness sent me something!

There's more to the story before I can reveal what it is . . . I am driving hom from work and my husband calls or I called him (forgot which) to see where I was at, when I'd be home, etc. I asked what he was doing and he said that he was trying to figure out who ordered something from Macy's in two gigantic boxes.I really don't shop at Macy's in store or online and I genuinely try to explain to him that I DID NOT order anything from Macy's. He said, "Well, there's two huge boxes with your name on them." I asked him to open them and he said, it's China. I said, "China?" That's weird. There was no packing slip in the first box he opened. He opened the second one and found it was from his sister in SLC!! Phew! At least I was off the hook! So through all the packing peanuts (which are SOOOO annoying by the way), there were these beauties:

YEP! That's right! Genuine Fiesta - 8 sets of them. That's crazy expensive! So, we call up good ol' sister/sister-in-law and she told us the whole story about the car crash (which I kind of heard about), the shooting (which I hadn't heard about) and the notion of doing random acts of kindness. She said that she remembered I said that I liked Fiesta-ware and wouldn't buy it 'cuz it's too expensive and that I liked yellow. Well, this was said about 3 & 1/2 years ago when we were visiting her once. I don't even remember saying that! Anyway, the dish sets were buy one - get one free, so it was less expensive that it looks on the surface, but still a lot of money I thought. She said that it's her money and she'll do what she wants with it. OK - who can argue with that? It's a gift - take it!! So, we exhcanged 6 of them to get some other colors. It's really fun stuff!!! Here's the colors we got (red, orange & light blue on request of my two little boys):

We are very happy with the gift and we are grateful for family who thinks kind things and acts upon them - such an example we could all learn from. Following that, my husband had the idea to gather some friends of our up with their kids and hit $1 scoop Tuesdays at Baskin & Robbins - fun trip. We had three families there and two or three other couples from our ward also came through while we were there! You know you're LDS when you see everyone in your ward at the cheapest ice cream parlor in town! We'll make it a weekly event - $1 scoop Tuesdays is only in the winter though, so not sure how much longer it will be going on. (bummer!)

So - go out and continue on in your random acts of kindness. I had a thought early on in 2007 that it's not always the thought that counts (not sure if I am repeating myself from an earlier post or not), but mostly we need to act on our thoughts and follow through on them. If your friend or family member doesn't see an action, she/he will not know that you are thinking of her/him. Let's not get caught up in the cliche, "It's the thought that counts." That's not always true. Maybe you picked the wrong color or style, but did actually give something to someone, then the thought can be counted. If you think of something, but don't do it, then it's just a thought andyou can't put a mark on your side of the chalkboard. OK - that was a lecture to myself, not to anyone who might be reading! :=)